A food co-op may sprout in downtown Medford.

Organizers plan to hold a public meeting at 6 p.m. Aug. 11 at the Santo Community Center, 701 N. Columbus St., to solicit ideas.

"We would like to create something that is really Medford-resident driven," said Shareen Fiol of Medford, one of the organizers. She said there is a growing interest in starting a food co-op, in part because the downtown area lacks a grocery store.

"There’s nothing in the downtown core," she said.

Fiol said about 70 people have expressed interest and offered help, and organizers have formed a 10-member steering committee. The group has been researching what it would take to form a member- owned and managed food store, and are receiving local and national support. Representatives of the Ashland Food Cooperative have been advising the group.

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"For us it’s extremely exciting," said Annie Hoy, outreach and owner service manager with Ashland Food Co-op. "Co-ops are grass-roots organizations; they are democracy in action at the basic level."

The Ashland store has considered opening a Medford store, said Hoy.

Feasibility studies were conducted seven years ago and recently showed the community would support it, she added.

She said, however, that a co-op has a better chance of thriving if it’s created by its own community members rather than by people from a neighboring community.

She said Medford members may want different products than what’s offered in the Ashland store.

"Their owners might want to have Coke products and Doritos," she said. "We’ll never do that here."

Eric Iversen, senior planner with the Medford Urban Renewal Agency, said the timing is perfect with 77 new housing units coming available next year as part of the Bella Vita condominiums to be built downtown.

"They (the residents) are going to want to be served by a nice food store," said Iversen.

It’s premature to say whether MURA would have a role in helping to establish the store, he said.

"Once they get organized and get things together, I’m sure our board would love to hear what they have to say," he said.

Fiol said organizers are pursuing several funding options to start up, including Food Co-op 500. She said no site has been selected for the store.

Food Co-op 500 is a national program which supports the development of new food cooperatives in the U.S. with a goal of increasing the number of food co-ops from 300 to 500 by 2015.

Vicki Swartz, mission banking program associate with the National Cooperative Bank in Washington, D.C., has helped put the program together.

Part of the support includes offering new stores matching grants for up to $10,000, for which the Medford food co-op might be eligible, she said.

She said Medford’s co-op has a good chance of being successful.

"Cooperatives usually form out of need," she said.

Fiol said there are many benefits to working with the people who have already established food co-ops.

"We’re not totally reinventing the wheel," she said, adding, "Having the Ashland store being a mentor for us, it provides some legitimacy."

With more than 3,000 members, the Ashland co-op is well established.

"We started up in 1972 as a buying club," said Hoy. "We’ve grown into a $16-million-a-year business."

Hoy said opening a Medford co-op seems to make sense.

"It could be three years, it could be 18 months, it depends on how much money there is and how fast they move," said Hoy. "It’s all just potential now for Medford; the sky is the limit."

For more information, call Shareen Fiol at 951-6015.

Reach reporter Meg Landersat 776-4481 or e-mail mlanders@mailtribune.com.